Mus mus mus: to the Gubernsky theater came "Lady with a Dog"

Sergei Bezrukov's theater now has its own "Lady with a Dog". On the MST Small Stage, director Alla Reshetnikova has staged a performance based on one of Chekhov's most famous stories. Anton Sokolov and Natalia Shklyaruk are in the main roles. Sad plot here filled with grotesque and humor. And the director also acted as a production designer. She built the Yalta embankment on the stage, installed LED-screens and fed the heroes with watermelon. "Izvestia" visited the premiere and was surprised by the original reading of the program text.

Chekhov is staged with humor, but not always funny

The program of the premiere production of "Lady with a Dog" at the Moscow Gubernsky Theater promised the audience "a drama in the style of impressionism". Three gilded picture baguettes of different sizes, from boudoir to giant, hung on the stage among the decorative elements. LED screens were placed in them. The museum framing of the stage promised that the creators of the performance would retell Chekhov in a classical manner. And Chekhov's quote - "You shouldn't stop people from going crazy..." - indicated the director's sense of humor.

Alla Reshetnikova wanted to make the play authorial from beginning to end. Baguettes, screens, everything else is her handiwork. In the center of the turntable there is a podium reminiscent of a pier. On the sides of each backstage - board screens, such of which make changing rooms on the beach. As soon as the light went out in the hall, the Crimean coast was reminded of the pictures that came to life on the screens. Painted in the manner of impressionist artists, they convey the sights of Yalta and, of course, the sea.

A sporty man is swimming along the shore. Director Alla Reshetnikova made it believable and comical at the same time. A small trick became a convincing visual effect. The main character, Dmitry Gurov, appeared before the audience like Aphrodite from the foam. On his head - a canotier, details covered a towel. This role in the play was played by Anton Sokolov - one of the main stars of the Gubernsky Theater. Gurov in "Lady with a Dog" - the third premiere of the season at the actor. In his record list is still Shvabrin in "The Captain's Daughter" and a role in the mono-performance "Lullaby for a dandelion".

In addition to Gurov, on the Yalta beach were two cheerful young men. They beckoned passers-by in cafes and offered to make a photo with cardboard Chekhov. With the role of either city madmen, or jesters brilliantly coped Dmitry Vorkunov and Sergei Rensevich. Their appearance said that this is not a vacationers, and former businessmen. Both dressed in the latest fashion. On the vest watch with a chain, instead of a straw hat cylinder. They know when the gentleman wants a vodka and when he wants a cup of coffee.

Planning the next production on the stage of the Gubernsky theater, the director thought to present the audience a nice romance on several actors. She thought of "The Lady with the Dog." But, rereading Chekhov's story, I realized that the author's five pages are not a romantic story at all. Sokolov's character turns from a cynic into a sufferer.

- Gurov pretends to be strong, sexy and capable of anything, - shared Anton Sokolov. - In fact, he is afraid of everything. He has a lot of complexes and problems. And at one point he realized that he had to take off his "armor".

According to Anton Sokolov, this play is about love. And love is when people are not afraid to be weak, when they accept another person with all his faults. And now they are happy to overcome life's difficulties together.

With the heroine of Natalia Shklyaruk Anna Sergeevna occurs a similar metamorphosis. The meeting in Yalta with Dmitry Gurov becomes a turning point. Now she will no longer be the same. Resort romance ignites a spark in her. Someone worth living for appears. And it does not matter that the lover saw in the connection with the resort only an affair. Gurov easily hooked Anna Sergeevna on a fishing rod, but it turned out that he himself was caught on the hook.

- Love is not the most important thing that happened to her, - explains the actress. - After each meeting with her favorite man, she grows wings. Love is about flying. Anna Sergeevna learns to live anew, to perceive the environment and circumstances.

Having met a really close person, the characters of the play ask themselves and us a question: how to accept this love that happened for the first time in their lives - as a gift or a curse? And how to bear this feeling that has fallen on you, if it brings only a bitter realization of emptiness, reveals the unhappiness of all the previous years lived without true love. For Natalia Shklyaruk, Chekhov's story is about light and happiness. Even the heroine's tears in the final scene are of happiness. The actress wants the audience to leave the auditorium with hope, not hopelessness. Everyone has a chance to correct mistakes.

In the finale of the performance the platform turns into a brig under sail. But only it is made of the boards of that nasty fence under which Gurov wandered, not daring to enter Anna Sergeyevna's house. And there seems to be a glimmer of hope for a common future, but the lovers find themselves on opposite sides of the "sail". They stand with their backs to each other and look in different directions.

What is "Lady with a Dog" about?

This story is not only about the meeting of two people, but about the meeting with himself. A man who tries to build a destiny according to his own scenario, not the one imposed by parents, society, rules, upbringing. Heroes ask themselves the question: what do I want? Breaking the barriers, Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna dare to answer this question. The tragedy is that it happens very late.

But if you put aside the personal drama of lovers, the story is told with humor. The audience laughs at the improvisation and comic timing of the actors. At how the text can be interestingly read for the author. The director distributed it among the heroes, and they made a reprise out of each phrase. And now on the stage appears Gurov in valenki on wheels. He is walking an old woman on a sled... with a beard. And the audience is pouring with laughter, because wrapped in a warm shawl actor Kirill Novyshev in the last scene played a barmaid, who brazenly dealt with watermelon. It is cruel to cut a ripe watermelon on stage in winter. The fresh flavor of it quickly spread through the hall. And then Gurov began to eat watermelon so greedily that the audience's stomachs rumbled from watching it.

- An amazing thing happened with this production, it was easy all the time, - says the director. - I was cautiously waiting for everyone to shake, when it would be difficult, but there was a connection with the material. The story fell to these marvelous actors. I don't know how they do it. The actors improvise a lot, they exist etude. The play began to take shape even in rehearsals, where everyone laughed a lot.

And the audience was also not bored to follow the story of how the holiday romance of two seemingly prosperous people broke the course of their lives, turning everything upside down. In addition, the production has an excellent musical lineup. Cheerful dance tunes make you move constantly, demonstrating the plasticity and stretching of all the characters.

Alla Reshetnikova's performance will not want to be compared with the Chekhov adaptation directed by Joseph Heifitz, in which Alexei Batalov and Iya Savvina shone. The film turned 65 years old this year, it was a phenomenon for its time, it won awards in Cannes, London and at other film festivals. But experienced theatergoers will surely remember a recent performance of Chekhov's story at the Moscow Art Theatre, where film director Alexei Mizgirev dissected the classic in his own way. He moved the action to the present day. Heroes meet not on the seafront of Yalta, and in the office of a psychotherapist. The role of Gurov director entrusted to the then artist of the Vakhtangov Theater Sergei Volkov. Anna Sergeevna was played by Polina Romanova. But, in addition to them, the director brought the spouses of the heroes to the foreground. Gurov's wife and Anna Sergeevna's husband got the right to speak out. Together with the doctor, they decide whether it is possible to forgive those who have been led astray by the unclean, who found a hobby on the side? Although Chekhov called his work "Lady with a Dog", the white spitz on stage is an unimportant character, without which both Mizgirev and Reshetnikova preferred to do without. But the watermelon in both of them turned into the main and juiciest (in all senses) image.

"Lady with a Dog" Anton Pavlovich wrote in Yalta, dying of tuberculosis. And there is in it a look back at his own life and at the mistakes that, no matter how warned, will still be made.

The next premiere screening is February 14.